how druids really see the so called civilized folk

[Falonthas]

: the sky grows brighter as the sun rises,its beams slowly piercing the canopy above

a branch breaks and several brightly colored figures in robes and staffs are moving into the glade,the animals all take note but most simply move to the depths of the trees

"over here" the taller of the three calls out"i see a bear over here isnt that what johan wants,bears?"
"yep two bear pelts each "replies his companion as they move slower now and spread out to surround the berry eating bears

one of the robed forms begins to chant and wave his arms and hands in strange motions as a single arrow swiftly impacts his shoulder disrupting his spell .

the figures turn only to see a green and black shadow moving toward them,when the ground erupts at their feet vines entangling them securely and walls of flame rise from nothing to turn the small area into a sweltering arc around the tangled men

thrashing about with their staffs the men attempt to cast once more but more arrows rain down making their efforts useless

the one seeming to be in charge cries out" why do you accost us this way we are simply hired for a job by a city man"

a whispering voice reaches their ears over the flickering flames" the city man sends you because he knows his crimes against nature means his death to complete the cycle"

several more arrows zip into non vital areas making the mens efforts for release pointless

the voice comes to their ears once more" when men of the city are injured the clerics come to their aid purging what has caused the infirm"
a slight pause then speaks again
" these woods and all of nature are kept by the druids and we aid them when they are injured by purging that which causes harm the same way"

"a shame your not in the city now isnt it"

the flames roar up once more and the surrounding circle closes the space swiftly engulfing the men and causing a swift end to their writhing screaming  forms

the flames vanish and nothing remains save the charred remains of more hunters who plague nature for the so called city man,the birds begin to chirp and the animals slowly move about their way foraging and playing in the grasses and roots

the green and black shadow merges into the trees once more ever vigilant against the so called innocent hunters of the city,the brown clad archers in the limbs above resume their vigil watching the woods they call home

[J-ser]

Ouch.
From now on I'll check all the bushes before shooting the bears. And the trees.

I like it.

[Falonthas]

maybe check the grass as well since  you never know where things may hide

[Nehetsrev]

Perhaps that's how -one- druid sees 'civilized' folk, but I would tend to think that I were playing a druid he/she would see things with a bit more nuetrality.  What I mean is, my druid would look at the 'civilized' races and think that they too are part of nature and have their place.  The druid and 'civilized folk' would really only come into conflict when the druid perceives that the 'civilized folk' are harming the natural balance of the environment in an abusive and excessive way, such as over-hunting for sheer sport, clear-cutting land to make fields for more crops than are nescessary to sustain the community or build structures that serve more recreational (and thus wasteful) purposes rather then housing families and/or storing food and other goods for times of drought or through winter when natural food is often not available to be collected.

In your situation above, my druid may have prevented the attack on the bear, but would have stopped to ask what the intended purpose of the hunt was instead of outright killing those 'civilized folks'.  After all, bears eat more than berries, they also eat fish, ants and other bugs, and any game they can catch and kill and they do so especially when preparing for winter by eating more then they need in order to store the food as fat to be used while they hibernate.  If people are also a natural part of the ecosystem, shouldn't they have a right to hunt and store food in their own way as well?  People are also likely to use the skins to make clothing to keep themselves and their offspring warm, the fats to make candles to provide lighting in the dark and other things, so these hunters might not have been the wasteful type as the druid in the above example assumes they are.  Yes they talked about getting the skins for a fur trader back in town, but it's quite possible they would have used the meat of the bear to sustain themselves.

Oh sure, 'civilized' races build 'un-natural' structures to house themselves, but so do bees, ants, otters, beavers, wasps, birds and many other animals.  Sure 'civilized' races alter the environment around themselves to better suit their needs, but again, so do animals like the beavers I've already mentioned, causing an area that wouldn't naturally flood to flood because of the dams they build.  Bears often damage and sometimes kill trees by scratching off large patches of bark simply to sharpen their claws.  Yet do druids persecute these animals the way yours persecutes the group of hunters above?  No.  Why not?  Because a druid knows that the environment, though often impacted by the pressence of many species in various negative ways is also impacted by those same species and others in positive ways that balance out the damage done.  It's only when damage is excessive and nothing is being done to repair it that a druid need be concerned with acting to restore that balance.

I hold that a true druid is a caretaker of the land who wishes nothing more than to see all the flora and fauna within their domain flourish in harmony and balance with eachother, including those pesky 'civilized' folk who sometimes disrupt that balance, usually to feed their greed, but sometimes to support a community that has grown larger than it's immediate environs can sustain.  Likewise if some other invasive species should threaten the druids domain, the druid would seek to bring balance and control to the new species and help it become a natural part of the ecosystem.  A druid understands that diversity of nature also brings strength to it.  So, if that cannot be achieved the druid would resort lastly to attempting to eliminate the new species to protect the balance that already exists in their domain.

[Falonthas]

perhaps you would think that until day after day the mother bears come to you and tell of all their cubs being killed by the fur traders hired gatherers

you would seek out a way around the extinction of your friends and when it didnt work you would make your stand near the bears showing that they are more then fur

then when the hunters still come caring for nothing but the coin you would finally get fed up with the city folk and then its time to send messages back that the bears or badgers or other animals who cant fight the magic wielders with super swords,that the tenders of nature wont allow such outright slaughter of their friends any more

[Nehetsrev]

Predation is a natural part of any ecosystem, and in some cases it may seem unbalancing at points.  Look at the 10 year cycle of foxes and arctic hares for example:  The foxes, in years when the hares are plentiful eat more and reproduce more.  This causes an over-abundance of foxes which eventually drives the number of hares down to a point far too low to sustain the fox population.  Thus, many foxes die of starvation in following years.  The hare population begins to rebound with the lack of predators and the cycle balances itself and repeats itself.

Now, if the bear population in your example becomes too dense then you have bears competeing for resources and wandering into and near towns to look for food.  Food that includes, livestock, pets, garden grown fruit and vegetables, and even human children and adults. On top of that, when any population grows to be too much for it's enviroment as to be too numerous, many often begin dying of plague because their bodies imune-systems become weakened from lack of nurishment and increased stress caused by the competition for what food sources there are.  This is fact, and even happens in RL as is evidenced by the bear populations in places like Minnesota where I grew up.  Does a hungry bear stop to consider whether the child it mauls and consumes is someones off-spring?  No.  To the bear, the child is just food.  There is no mercy, nor self-restraint in nature's predator/prey relationships, yet the cycle balances itself over varying time periods.

So yes, the mother bears might come complaining to the Druid if they're being overhunted, and even when they're not, simply becuase of their emotional attachment to their own offspring.  Yet the druid should not give preference to any species, be they man or animal since preference brings imbalance, just as excessive and abusive behaviors negatively impact the environment.  It would suit the druid more to teach those capable of learning how their actions impact the enviroment and economy over the long run and short run and how to be good stewards of the land and avoid excessive and abusive behaviors, rather than simply murdering hunters who may, or may not legitimately need the bears for a source of food and clothing.

What about animals being hunted to extinction, you might ask?  Well, it's true that that can be a real shame, however, as nature balances itself, most species in an ecosystem that are lost to extinction are eventually replaced by other species who serve the same role as those that have become extinct.  In the case of predators, it is not uncommon in nature for one predatory species to force other predatory species out of an area over time, even to the point that the weaker, less adaptive species becomes extinct.  This would happen with or without man's interfearance.  Look at the dinosaurs for instance.  Do you see any wandering about today?  No, because they could not adapt to whatever catastrophic conditions nature challenged them with and so they died out, giving room for new species such as mammals to take their place in dominance of the Earth's surviving eco-systems.

So yes, as a druid interfear.  Teach the hunters and farmers what impact their actions have on the land and the eco-system.  They don't want to face years when the prey they make a living off of can no longer be found, or the fields they tend have replaced other wild plants that they value for extra sustenance or medicinal or practical uses, or years of drought and famine.  Lumberjacks want there to be forrests for themselves to continue harvesting wood from so their children's children have wood to build homes and other things from.  Many just are ignorant of how to be good stewards and need to be taught, and dead people learn nothing and teach nothing.

Of course, if the druids want to be seen as the enemy, then go ahead and kill those hunters.  Their surviviors will send warriors to kill the druids and with the druids out of the way they'll happilly harvest what they want when they want with no thought of what it does to the land or eco-system.  Neither will they listen to the next druid that comes along who does try to teach them because they'll be predisposed to reject anything any druid has to say.  Even if the druids aren't killed off, they'll be spending more time hiding from those hunting them than they will ever spend actually being caretakers of the lands as they should be doing.

Okay, so now I've said my piece about how I think druids should think and act.  With that said, vengeful murderous druids do add flavor and conflict to the world.  My point is simply that not all druids see the world the same way, just as there is dissagreement between the members of any cultural group about how to best live or do anything.  Good work on the story above, it's a nice piece of entertainment.

[Rayenoir]

And that is precisely what my new druid is based on.  I'd add something here, but Nehetsrev managed to put it into words so well I don't need to.  *smiles pleasantly*

[Falonthas]

but she messed up my story

[Nehetsrev]

Falonthas - 11/3/2006  7:27 PM

but she messed up my story

For the record, I'm a 'He' not a 'she', though I do play two female characters here on Layonara.

As far as your story goes, it is still intact in it's original form in the first post of this thread, though if you intended to add more here I apologize that my posts have disrupted the flow of your story.  I merely wished to point out that not all druids hold the violent ideals that the one in the story did, and that in fact I believe more druids would hold to the types of less-violent views as I've pointed out.  A fairly easy solution though would be to re-post your story in a new thread with a request that others not post in that thread, and then you could continue the story there.  Or if you wanted to bother the moderators, you might also request all posts after the first thread here be split to a new one or something.  Again, I apologize if my posting my own views here has offended you in any way.